4 entries categorized "Tools"

January 17, 2015

Sadly, it turns out that silicone trays, despite their other charms, truly do soak up freezer smells and flavors over time and there isn't much to be done about it. Thus we no longer recommend them.

However, the good news is that once again the baby food freezing supplies industry has come to our rescue. This time it's via a brand we love, Oxo, and their amusingly appropriately named "Tot" line. Oh, they think it's about children, but we know it's really about Royal Navy rum rations.

The containers are securely lidded—with a no-spill top, allowing these to be transported safely for bartending in locations without freezer access—and if allowed to sit for just a few moments after being removed from the freezer, the ice can be easily popped free. No more wrestling with stubborn silicone trays!

When filling, note the interior fill line which provides room for the ice to expand as it freezes without popping the top open. Because these are separate units, you can refill each one immediately upon use rather than waiting to empty a whole tray and thus you can maintain a more constant supply of good ice. Simply rotate the base to position the least-frozen containers to the back and grab the oldest ice from the front when you next need some.

We use the larger cube (4 ounce) in our mixing glass, and the smaller ones in the glass for drinks on the rocks.

Or should we say, ice thimbles. The machine works by chilling nine short rods in a water bath, cold enough that ice forms around the rods. When time's up, the machine ejects the resulting ice into a hopper. The hopper is cleverly positioned over the water reservoir, so as the ice melts, it gets recycled into new ice.

We started up the ice maker and let it run for a few hours. It produces nine cubes every 10 minutes or so, making about a pound of ice every hour. The first few sets are pretty anemic; the cubes didn't get to full size until the fourth or fifth set.

We tried the ice (on the "large" setting) in a stirred drink, a shaken drink, and as crushed ice.

For our stirred drink, we chose the Liberal. (It was appropriate for the evening, since I was sorting through the San Francisco election materials while waiting for the ice.) Here are the results.

It's perfectly nice ice. Not particularly big or particularly dry, but better than your average sopping wet party ice. The thimble shape gives the cubes a ton of surface area, so the stirred drink came to temperature pretty fast.

For our shaken drink, we chose the Last Word. (We also, by the way, chose CapRock gin for this which makes a fantastic Last Word. Our new go-to for this cocktail).

As you can see, the shape of the ice made it break up into tiny pieces almost instantly.

The drink was great, without a lot of ice flecks making it through the strainer. We usually like to see bigger pieces post-shake, but the drink didn't suffer.

For the crushed-ice drink, we chose the . . . well, never mind. (We didn't have the necessary ingredients for any crushed-ice drink we like.) But we crushed the ice anyway, and it turned out perfectly nicely.

So, in all, a pretty nice ice maker.

Does this have any utility for people with a refrigerator ice maker, or those who like big cubes and use Beaba trays? No, the ice it makes is smaller and wetter than that.

Can it make enough ice to keep a party going? A small party, sure, but not the kind of parties we throw. (This machine can make a bit over a pound an hour; we routinely blow through about 100 pounds of ice at a party.)

But it would be really handy out on a deck for making a round of cocktails every once in a while, or on a boat or in an RV or any place else with electricity that's far from a freezer. It would be just the thing for your camp at Burning Man, for example. (As it happens, we don't have a deck, a boat, an RV, or a love of dust storms in the Nevada desert.)

While it doesn't make much sense as a kitchen appliance for anyone with a freezer, it can provide a renewable supply of fresh ice anyplace you have electricity.

June 15, 2008

You need a good channel knife. Though an essential garnishing tool, the difference in use between the varying styles may not become clear to you until you give them a really good test drive.

Bibulo.us currently endorses the funny looking, but great cutting Zyliss Zester as the channel knife of choice for the home. Lots of control, gentle on the hand, and performs like a champ even for exceptional twist-generating projects like New Year's Eve Champagne Cocktails for the whole party.

If you don't like the way the Zyliss cozies up smoothly into your palm, do get yourself a more traditional style channel knife to help you garnish appropriately. One major reason to use this tool is so you can cut a twist safely right over the glass and achieve the proper spray of citrus oils across the top of the drink.

The excellent channel knife showdown by Kevin Ludwig, of Beaker and Flask, in the July/August 2007 issue of Imbibe Magazine (the existence of such an article was the clincher for our getting a subscription) gives more tips on fail-safe twists as well as the pros & cons of four other knives. Kevin's pick was the Zyliss, for which advice we are most grateful. Back issues of Imbibe are cheap and this one also has a great cover story by Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles on obscure vintage ingredients and a short piece by Camper English, noted Alcademic, on throwing spirit tasting parties.

Who is bibulo.us?

Bibulo.us is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In other words, a good way for authors to make just a bit more per copy on their books or products they recommend.

Sometimes people give us stuff to review. If we got something for free, we'll say so. But that won't affect the content of the review. If we say we like it, we actually like it. We sometimes get comped drinks at bars, too -- but so do you, probably, so we don't specifically call that out.